Chapter 950: Back to the Start [Bonus 15]
Arthur and Risha were back on Floor 1.
Their progress had been completely reset, all their Authorities, Skills, Unique Abilities and energies besides magic power had been sealed once more, leaving them with only their Existence Realms intact.
Arthur heaved a deep sigh as he forced himself onto his knees and dragged his body toward the edge of the pool of cosmic energy, collapsing onto the stone-cold floor surrounding it.
The motion drew Risha’s attention, making her realise she was awake, and she turned her gaze toward him.
Her face held a dark expression, beads of sweat trailing down her brow, and seeing that, Arthur spoke with a self-deprecating laugh.
"How many times?"
He didn’t clarify what he meant, but Risha understood. Silence lingered between them for a moment before she finally answered in a low, hesitant voice.
"...5."
Arthur lifted an eyebrow when he heard that. "Oh wow, same here."
He scoffed and forced himself upright, leaning back against the wall.
All his limbs were attached, and his bones were whole. However, the energy he had expended, the pain from his injuries, and the soul damage he had suffered hadn’t simply vanished.
Even now, pain coursed through him, and he felt like his skin was still being burned by the power of creation.
Risha was in a similar condition. She could still feel the pain of a blade piercing through her scales and plunging toward her heart.
But the real pain she felt did not come from the sensation of the weapon piercing into her body, but from the renewed knowledge of the one who had held that weapon.
It was a dark memory from her teenage years, something she had forced down into the deepest recesses of her mind, practically hypnotising herself into forgetting it had ever happened.
However, events like that, the ones that left scars on her psyche, were exactly what Harlamagne’s Pure Fiction had dragged back to the surface and forced her to relive in a distorted version.
She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling her heart pound heavily inside it, and every time she closed her eyes, she saw the enraged expression of the person who was meant to be closer to her than anyone else in the Cosmos, the one who had entered reality alongside her, their face filled with rage and their eyes clouded with hate.
"Hey Risha," Arthur’s voice cut through her thoughts before they could spiral into a dark, depressing loop, and she turned toward him with a questioning expression on her face.
"Who the hell was that guy?" Arthur asked. "You know who he was, don’t you?"
Arthur was naturally referring to the dragon they had encountered on Floor 6, Harlamagne.
Harlamagne’s introduction had already given Arthur some hints as to who he truly was, but he wanted confirmation from Risha, who undoubtedly knew more about the dragon race and their Ancient Breeds than he did, considering she was one of them.
Even more so since this dragon bore the last name ’Levite’ and Rishia was one of many dragons who held the Levites in deep respect.
Harlamagne was the first Ancient Dragon besides the six Arthur had encountered on Planet Chazat decades ago who he knew to carry the last name ’Levite’, and he was certainly related to those six.
Rishia’s response only confirmed the suspicions he already had.
"Harlamagne vi Levite is Lady Wyndella’s first son."
Hearing this, Arthur laughed. "Oh wow, she really sent her son after us, huh?"
Arthur had already guessed this was the case, given Harlamagne’s power of creation and his claim of commanding the Creation Dragonflights serving Wyndella. His question had only been to confirm what he already suspected.
What Arthur didn’t know, however, was that Harlamagne’s brief introduction was actually his Existence Declaration.
"He called himself the firstborn of the Dragon of Despair, and I’m pretty damn sure Wyndella doesn’t have a side job as a Dragon of Despair..."
When Arthur said this, Rishia nodded slightly, pushing herself up and sitting on the edge of the pool of liquefied cosmic energy.
"Bahamut. The Dragon of Despair is Bahamut," she answered.
At her words, Arthur immediately connected the dots, recalling an event years ago, from the time he, Wyndella, and Barda had gone to Asgard to retrieve Nidhoggr.
"Ah, I see. So the ’first love’ Barda spoke of was Bahamut, huh? That makes him the last of the dragon race’s Four Great Sinners."
[Malice — the joy of ruin for its own sake.
Pride — the defiance of the order that birthed her.
Greed — the hunger to become all that exists.
Despair — the will to destroy what cannot be saved.]
Arthur knew the names of the first three, Azi Dhaka, Nidhoggr and Fafnir, and now, the fourth name had been added to the list—Bahamut.
Risha visibly cringed at the mention of the title, Four Great Sinners, and her expression made Arthur chuckle softly.
However, his laughter faded quickly, and he heaved another tired sigh, letting his body slump back onto the stone floor.
"How the fuck are we supposed to beat that?" he spat, his voice filled with indignation.
Risha remained silent, offering no response, and Arthur didn’t mind.
Both of them were too exhausted right now, both physical and mentally, to begin thinking about how to best Harlamagne.
What’s more, they had to go through Floors 1-5 again, and given that the Floors were randomised, they’d definitely not be in the same order as the last time.
In other words, they might encounter Gindry’s Trap Hell first, or jump straight into Gervod’s Rainforest World.
Arthur didn’t even have the brainpower to dread those possibilities, his eyes fluttering shut as his exhaustion pulled his consciousness down into the depths of darkness.
◇ ◇ ◇
When Arthur awoke, Rishia was already up, silently moulding an orb of magic power between her palms.
Arthur watched her for several seconds before finally speaking. "Um, you okay?"
Rishia lifted her eyes toward him and tilted her head slightly in confusion as she asked, "And why wouldn’t I be?"
Arthur sat up and rested his back against the wall before replying, "Well, you don’t exactly look okay."
Most of the phantom pain he’d felt earlier had faded, although his limbs still felt stiff and faint aches lingered here and there. His eyes drifted to the liquefied cosmic energy pool in front of them as he muttered,
"We really have to go through everything from the start again, huh?"
"This is the price of failure," Rishia replied. "Nothing can be done about that. We just have to NOT fail again."
Though her tone was flat like usual, and was laced with barely any emotion, Arthur could somehow tell that she was forcing it.
Losing to Harlamagne was clearly weighing on Rishia more than it was on Arthur.
’And here I thought I was a sore loser,’ Arthur thought, chuckling lightly.
"What’s so funny?" Rishia asked, noticing him chuckle, but Arthur simply shook his head before answering, "Nothing, just..."
He sighed, shaking his head once more before repeating, "Nothing."
The thought of having to clear Floors 1-5 of the tower again made his head throb, and knowing the designers behind it, he had an unpleasant feeling that the altered order of the floors wouldn’t be the only difference this time.
"We might face stronger opponents, and the conditions for clearing each floor could be different," Arthur said, and Rishia nodded in agreement, having already reached the same conclusion.
Silence filled the area for several seconds before Arthur finally voiced the question that mattered most.
"How the hell are we supposed to beat that guy?"
He was referring to Harlamagne, the Ancient Dragon who had thoroughly schooled both of them before imprisoning them within altered versions of their own memories, where they were forced to face repeated defeats to former foes wielding the powers they were most vulnerable to.
Even worse, the damage they suffered inside those memory prisons manifested in reality.
’Trapped in a World of Doomed Creation, huh?’
Considering that every memory Arthur had relived ended in his death, or would’ve ended in his death in the case of the final one, it truly had been a World of Doomed Creation.
"Clearing the first 5 Floors of the Tower will be meaningless if we can’t figure out how to defeat Harlamagne on Floor 6," Arthur said, scratching his hair lightly before continuing, "Direct combat isn’t an issue. I was able to gauge that he was restraining his power to just below the cosmic baseline for the High-Tier Deity Realm, the peak of the limbo we’re currently in. The real problem is if he uses that Pure Fiction ability again, or anything similar."
Harlamagne’s Pure Fiction was like a BFR-type ability, and abilities like that were in the running for most irritating to handle as far as Arthur was concerned.
"I have an idea," Rishia finally said, pressing her palms together and dissolving the magic sphere she’d been moulding since before Arthur awoke.
She looked up at Arthur and began explaining the thoughts that had occupied her mind while he was asleep.
To distract herself from the disturbing memories Pure Fiction had stirred within her, Rishia had spent hours analysing possible counters to it.
After laying out everything she and Arthur had at their disposal, she’d reached a conclusion. "Your Extreme Nothingness Authority would probably be our best option."
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"World Collapse," Rishia replied, naming a technique that Arthur had used against her the first time they fought years ago.
"That technique of yours might be the key to defeating Pure Fiction."
Extreme Nothingness Authority: World Collapse.
